A court ruled that Walmart must pay $4.4 million in damages to an Oregon man who accused the retailer of racially profiling him in March 2020.
According to a court document, the Walmart employee was “reckless” and “wanton” in approaching Michael Mangun. A court document said that the employee, who a judge determined was acting within the scope of his employment, racially profiled Mangun, a Black man from Oregon.
Court documents indicated that Mangun noticed that the employee followed him throughout the store when Mangun went to an Oregon Walmart to purchase a light bulb. The employee asked Mangun to leave the store, but Mangun refused, claiming he did nothing wrong.
The employee then called a non-emergency police line. A store manager told deputies the store had seen a lot of theft, but Mangun maintained that it had nothing to do with him. Deputies did not arrest or take any actions against Mangun.
KGN-TV reported that deputies told Walmart that the employee had a pattern of calling the police for false reasons. The outlet said that the employee was fired in July 2020 for mishandling $35.
In a statement to KGN, Walmart said the fine was “excessive.”
